Dr. Dre Billion Dollar Status At Stake, 3rd Party Sues for Breach of Contract

Hold up Dr. Dre.  We may have celebrated your billionaire status a little too soon.

Reports are surfacing now that Steven Lamar, founder of Jibe Audio, has filed a lawsuit against Dr. Dre and Jimmy Iovine.  Lama claims that Beats headphones marketing strategy of using a celebrity artist as the face of the product line was originally his idea. He says that he approached Iovine with the idea way back in 2006.  For that reason, he is suing the duo on basis of breach of contract.

Although it seems as though this should be an issue between Lamar and Iovine, Dr. Dre has been named in the suit because Iovine’s suggestion to use the talented producer as the endorser.  Who better to endorse a product that Lamar envisioned to become the an iconic product with high-quality audio technology.

Apple’s acquisition of the Beats by Dre headphones is expected to cost $4.5 billion.  Of this payout, Dr. Dre will become the first hip hop billionaire. If Lamar wins this lawsuit, it is unknown how much this will affect Dre’s net worth.

In addition to the lawsuit against Iovine and Dre, Lamar is also suing design firm, Pentagram, for negotiating a separate deal with Beats. This separate deal cut the royalty stream for Lamar and Jibe. Therefore, Lamar filed suit against Dre, Iovine, Beats, Pentagram, and the Hinrichs & Associates law firm.

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